Engineers involved in packaging microelectromechanical (MEMS) devices, such as optoelectronic devices (e.g. digital micromirror display DMD by Texas Instruments), are confronted with a complex set of requirements, including issues such as accurate mechanical alignment features, rigid structure that does not deflect or deform significantly under system loads, thermal management that includes coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) matching and heat dissipation from the packaged device, reliability, and others. All these issues can be translated into materials and designs for the package. Even with all of the above requirements satisfied, successful commercialization of microelectromechanical devices, however, is still limited by one factor—cost efficiency of current packages and associated packaging processes.
In traditional integrated circuit fabrication, packaging contributes approximately ⅓ of the manufacturing cost. MEMS packaging, depending upon the desired use, can have a number of desired qualities, which can be more demanding than the traditional integrated circuit packaging due to the fragile microstructures of the MEMS devices, and is often considered a significantly expensive portion in MEMS manufacturing and packaged MEMS devices.